Third

Three years ago yesterday, I didn't have a blog, and I may not have even held any firm notion of starting one. A day later, I started one. Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks) began three years ago today, on Monday, January 18th, 2016. I've been here every day since.



And it started because I was so unprepared for the news of David Bowie's death, and how surprised I was that it affected me as it did. I like Bowie, but it's not like he was ever one of my Toppermost Poppermost Fave Raves. I like a lot of artists. Nonetheless, hearing of Bowie's passing made me sad, much sadder than I would have expected. It stirred up feelings I didn't know I had. Maybe part of it was just timing: my daughter had just begun a semester living in London; I missed her, and I knew I wouldn't be seeing her anytime soon. A whirlwind of emotion and reflection prompted me to write an open letter to David Bowie, expressing my feelings of loss and gratitude, and my acknowledgement of inspiration I didn't appreciate until it was gone.

The Bowie piece was written to accompany the published playlist for the 1/17/16 edition of our radio show This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, which was a Bowie memorial show. I had such a strong attachment to the piece that I decided I needed to share it beyond TIRnRR. A blog seemed the way to do that.


My favorite blog is Mark Evanier's News From ME. It's essential reading, and Evanier has mentioned his conviction that if someone is going to keep a blog, there is a tacit responsibility for the blogger to update the blog frequently. Maybe not every day--that's [ahem] crazy--but regularly, and often. It's a commitment. If you expect folks to become invested in what you're doing, you'd damn well better give 'em a reason to pay attention in the first place, and you'd better provide fresh content so they have a reason to keep coming back.

For me, committing to a daily blog was foolish. There was no way I was prepared to write that much that quickly. Other than the weekly TIRnRR playlists, I hadn't written anything regularly since giving up freelancing for Goldmine in 2006, and I wasn't really all that prolific even then. BUT...! I had a pretty large inventory of things I'd already written. I could re-use some of that stuff to get the blog started, and then take it from there. Calling this a plan inflates its identity, but it's what I was gonna do.

I started under the initial title CC Says. Within a few days, I decided I wanted a more distinctive nom du blog, and settled on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). That title was something I'd once toyed with using as a proposed column for Goldmine, the title itself a variation of an emeritus contribution to my high school literary magazine back in 1978, "Groovin' (Like The Hip Folks Do)." 

After the inaugural Bowie post, my first week as a blogger continued with a John Lennon reminiscence I'd given to John Borack for use in his 2010 book John Lennon: Life Is What Happens, a circa-1999 fantasy about The Archies as a real-life band, an announcement that TIRnRR's Bowie tribute was available to download (and it still is), a 2014 appreciation of being in love with a girl and Syracuse music in the summer of 1979, a 2005 Goldmine piece about the definitive rock 'n' roll jukebox, and previously-written celebrations of The Bay City Rollers and The Kinks. That brought us to the next week's TIRnRR playlist.

It took me a while to start generating (theoretically) original content. The death of Glenn Frey prompted a rumination on the mortality of our pop idols, but the blog was almost exclusively archival material and the weekly playlists. At the end of January, I started writing a time-traveling rock 'n' roll superhero novel called ETERNITY MAN!, posted the first couple of chapters, and then collected Chapters 1-5 as one post. 



Other than ETERNITY MAN! and the occasional this or that, it really wasn't until March of 2016 that I took a stab at an original project for the blog. Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio: My Life In Pop Culture was an attempt to chronicle my recollections of being a kid in the 1960s, sort-of growing up while reading comic books and listening to music. The series ran for nine lengthy parts, each originally posted individually, all of 'em eventually collected as one long reminiscence. That was, I think, the true start of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) trying to establish an identity. More would follow, including a ton of stuff about The Monkees' 2016 album Good Times!



A post a day, every day. That's nuts for someone who writes in his spare time. But I've kept at it. I suspended the blog once in 2018, with an intent to cut back and reassess; then Trump pissed me off (again), which compelled me to write something snarky and cancel the suspension without missing a day. In 2016, I published 368 posts, from January 18th through December 31st. 2017 added another 399, plus 391 in 2018, and now this 18th post in 2019. One or two of 'em may have even approached the substantive. Maybe not, but...still here. Let's see what tomorrow brings. Three years down. X to go. Thank you for Boppin' along with me.



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Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes,Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.